Whitney Under The Spotlight

Illawarra Mercury

Friday June 4, 1999

DENISE EVERTON

VISITING the Illawarra last week for some skydiving, abseiling, surfing and Harley riding, Sydney Weekender host Mike Whitney took time to comment on work, adventure and those Australian cricketers.

The Illawarra: It's extremely underrated. I've played a lot of cricket down here and spoken at a lot of functions and I've always been keen to promote it.

Choosing an entertainment role over cricket commentary on television: I didn't want to get pigeonholed in sport and found I had a little man with a hat and a cane in my head telling me to do entertainment. I was offered contracts for sport (from Nine, PayTV channel Galaxy and Seven) but knocked them back and Seven gave me Sydney Weekender.

Dangerous stunts: I do more dangerous things on Sydney Weekender than I do on Who Dares Wins but they can't be too dangerous. At 40 years of age I wouldn't do them. I'm not a macho man and I have nothing to prove. The motive for me is to show other people what they can do.

Scariest thing done: I climbed up the rock face called the Mantle Shelf at the Three Sisters in the Blue Mountains and at the end stood on top of the second sister. My physical aptitude to do the stunt worried me.

Who Dares Wins: I don't know what's happening with it. We finished filming about last September or October and I haven't heard a word since.

Gladiators: I try not to think about it but it was a lot of fun.

New projects: I've done pilots for a couple of shows at Seven which I can't say much about. One has been canned and the second has elements of Who Dares Wins but it's not the same.